Bottles of Gaymers cider on the production line in Somerset. C&C is moving the production to Ireland.
Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

A Shepton Mallet cider mill that makes well-known brands including Gaymers and Blackthorn is to close with the loss of 120 jobs, dealing a major blow to the Somerset market town. Irish company C&C, which makes Bulmers and Magners cider in Ireland and Tennent’s lager in Scotland, will move the production of cider to its factory in Clonmel in Ireland, where it is creating 80 new jobs.

Fruit will continue to be pulped at Shepton Mallet, but it will then be shipped to Ireland. This means that four full-time and up to eight seasonal workers will still work at the site. The company stressed that it would continue to buy apples from farmers in Somerset. C&C is also closing its water bottling plant in Borrisoleigh in Ireland, where it employs 140 people.

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The Somerset site also makes Olde English cider as well as the bottled premium brand Addlestones. The business is thought to date back to the 18th century, when the Gaymer family began making cider.

Unite, the UK’s largest union, said it was disgraceful that the 127 workers at Shepton Mallet found out about the planned closure from media reports on Tuesday morning.

C&C blamed tough competition in the UK and Ireland in recent years, which has pushed prices lower and means the affected sites are running at only a third of their capacity. It said: “This has been a difficult decision for the group, and it is sad that the consolidation of production at the Clonmel site is the only viable option to maintain long-term competitiveness. C&C recognises the impact on employees and will work to provide support, training, and where possible, alternative employment.”

The Shepton Mallet mill is expected to close in the late summer, Unite said, with the canning, bottling and kegging of cider moving to Ireland.

Unite’s regional coordinating officer, Steve Preddy, said: “There has been more than 240 years of cider production at Shepton Mallet, a workplace that is synonymous with historic cider production in the south-west – and now this is coming to an end. This is a grievous blow to the workforce, their families, the town and the Somerset economy.” The union said it would seek an urgent meeting with the C&C management to hear the reasons for the closure.

The MP for Wells, which covers Shepton Mallet, James Heappey, said the priority now was to ensure that workers who are losing their jobs would be offered appropriate retraining. He blamed C&C’s “poor commercial decisions” for the closure. Heappey told the Shepton Mallet Journal: “When I visited the Shepton cider mill last summer … I saw a factory that had enjoyed significant investment and was manufacturing a world-class product.

“Other large cider makers are, indeed, enjoying growth and making investment in new facilities locally. It would appear that Shepton’s closure is nothing to do with the cider mill nor the cider market, but poor commercial decisions taken by Irish parent company C&C. It is an incredible shame that Shepton Mallet – the beating heart of the global cider industry – may soon be without any major cider manufacturing.”

The company’s website states: “Here in the town of Shepton Mallet, high in the Mendips and away from the floods, an ancient borehole provided a natural source of water – perfect for the milling and blending of a most refreshing and distinctive Somerset cider. And now, as then, at Shepton Mallet cider mill, making cider isn’t just our passion – it’s a way of life.”